It was deeply unsettling. I didn’t hold his gaze, and my leg jiggled the longer he watched. I suddenly wondered if this is what Otherworlders feel like, the difficult ones we have to cage and send to one of fifty PIU units around the country, where we keep them until they cooperate. I’d never put myself in their shoes before. Should I live through this, I would never be able to look at them the same. Poor caged dudes.
A funny sound echoed out of Rex’s throat. He smiled, slowly getting to his feet. “You’re right, Ilume. He isn’t a normal human. He is a very rare, very different breed of person.” His smile evolved into a grin. “You brought us a Finder.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out. Oh, crap. Here I was, not only kidnapped and stuffed in a box, but kidnapped by the very creatures I hunted; and they knew what I was, what I did.
“Oh, he shivers,” Rex teased. I threw him a dirty look.
“Finder?” Ilume questioned. The word had her puzzled. “What’s a Finder?”
“A tracker. They hunt abnormals like us. It is said that the humans split into two groups long ago. One group dominated, ruling the world as it is today, while a small, feral group grew to be magnificent hunters, almost more deadly than we are. Today, they’ve crossbred. Those that can still hunt work for the government. He didn’t tag you, did he?” Rex’s smile morphed, eyes dangerous again.
Ilume shook her head. “He tried. I won.”
I tried to read their faces, see what they were thinking. In Ilume’s, I saw curiosity brewing under the wall of dislike. The beast in her wanted me destroyed, I knew, but the humanlike side wanted to know more about what I was.
In Rex’s face was just cold, hard murder.
“Well,” the alpha male said, shifting his feet. “While this is rather entertaining, he’s still a liability. I’m sick of cleaning up messes. We’ve got enough issues as it is.” He snapped his fingers. “Fox, Adonis, come dispose of this, will you?”
The bodyguards left the trees.
A black hole opened up in my head, sucking out any hope of survival. I pressed against the cage bars, feeling like someone had wrapped their fingers around my lungs and squeezed. Holy hell, I’d never been in this kind of situation before. I couldn’t put up a fight with brutes of this size. Not alone, not without my daggers or stun-guns. I couldn’t outrun them, either. They could easily change and have four legs while I only had two.
I was about to be dog chow.
The cage door opened. The older guy reached in, grabbing me by the scruff of my shirt. I struggled, held onto the cage bars, but he ripped me loose. The cage noisily tumbled over as I was jerked out to the ground. He dragged me away, and I held my shirt collar so it wouldn’t choke me. Need a plan, need a plan quick. Rex started toward the house, hands in his pockets like it was just another day in the woods. Bloody bastard! Beneath the panic, I spouted off curses in my head. That damn hound will pay for this. Peter won’t give up. He’ll go searching for me when he realizes I’m missing. He’ll find my scent mixed with Ilume’s. He’ll track her here, even though I’ll be . . .
Dead.
Ilume stared at Rex’s back then at me, lips parted. I threw her the nastiest look I could muster as Fox dragged me through the dirt, away from the mansion. Bitch. I hadn’t meant her harm—I just wanted her to follow the law. Freaking rotten mutt, I hope you die for this. I hope Peter stun-guns her when he finds out. Better yet, hit her as hard as she hit me.
“Wait,” she said.
The body guards stopped. I peeled the nasty glare off my face. Wait a second. What was she doing?
Rex stopped on the steps. The dark-haired woman had disappeared. “What now, Ilume?” he said.
She hesitated, eyeing me head to toe. “I have an idea,” she announced. “He’s a tracker, right? Someone who can seek out abnormals?”
“Uh, yeah?” Rex shrugged, impatient.
“Then why not use him? Couldn’t his abilities help us seek out the Jackals?”
Adonis and Fox exchanged glances.
I blinked at her. No way. Did she just say that? Okay, I take it all back. You’re not a mutt and you don’t deserve to die, and as long as you don’t stun-gun me I won’t let Peter stun-gun you, or do anything else. I held my breath, daring to hope. Maybe—just maybe—I’d see another day after all.
For a long moment, Rex stood like a statue. The fact that he didn’t instantly say “no” gave me another spark of hope. He chewed on his lip, thinking.
“Ilume, it’s not that it isn’t a smart idea,”—he seemed to have trouble complimenting her—“but how do you know he won’t trick us and lead us in the wrong direction? Do you think I trust someone who is bred to slay our kind? No. Not one bit. And don’t you dare tell me you do.”
“I don’t trust him,” she assured. “Who has the upper hand here? There are dozens of us versus one of him. If he leads us in the wrong direction, we kill him, but I think it’s dumb to pass on the opportunity.”
Please, please, please say yes. I couldn’t believe I was begging for survival. Yeah, I could play their little animal tracker while I thought up an escape. I would do anything to buy me some time. It would be easy. Plus, the more I knew about this place and area, the sooner I could return with backup to tag them all.
“He will need constant supervision and a firm hand,” Rex pointed out, getting cranky again. “None of the omegas are going to want to drag him around all day.”
“Then I will,” she interrupted.
Silence. I noticed the old man’s grip on me slacking somewhat. Yes! Another good sign. After growling and pulling at his hair, Rex huffed, “Fine. But if any harm comes to this pack, Ilume, I will personally hang him by the river and let the Jackals tear the skin off his bones.”
She smiled. “Deal.”
The alpha male stomped into the house, letting out a snarl. As the screen door slammed shut, Ilume snapped her fingers. “Fox, put him down now, dearest. I can take it from here.”
“Huh,” the older man scoffed, letting go of me. I dropped to the ground, laying there covered in cold sweat as the two hounds moved away.
I’m alive, I’m alive. That was the closest to being murdered that I’d ever been. I didn’t want to be that close ever again.
“Not sure what you just did, lovely lady, but I can tell you one thing: it’s going to be damn interesting,” Fox concluded with a chuckle.
Ilume cackled. “When is it not?”
Fox and Adonis loped across the clearing, whispering to each other as they climbed the porch steps. The second they were inside, Ilume’s nice act dissolved. She came over to me, frowning as she crouched down. I was still sprawled out on the ground.
“You’d better not cost me my dignity, punk,” she warned. “I just risked my ass to save yours. You’d better appreciate it.”
“I-I do.” My voice cracked.
Why had she just risked her life to save me anyway? The pack must really need a tracker. Sitting up, I rubbed the back of my neck where Fox’s long nails had grazed skin. Did all werewolves handle people like rag dolls?
“We’ll see about that. Come on. I’ll get you some ice. You probably have a permanent bump on your head.”
“You really give a new meaning to hit like a girl,” I muttered, getting to my feet. I shivered, and my head throbbed. Part of me wanted to yell at her for hitting me so hard, but seeing as she just saved my life I began to forgive her. As we started for the mansion, my vision went wobbly. Suddenly I was going sideways.
She grabbed my arm, steadying me with a grunt. “Nope,” she said, pushing me forward. “I hit like a wolf.”
Chapter Eleven
My senses went haywire as we came up the steps of the mansion. Ilume pulled open the screen door, leading me inside the enemy’s headquarters.
I’d never been inside the home of an
Otherworlder (Siren Lake doesn’t count). Instead of walking into a lobby, like I expected, we stepped into a kitchen/living room. The kitchen was comprised of granite counters and old appliances. The stove had coil burners, like my grandma’s did, and the toaster was slightly rusted. The couches in the living room were covered in dog hair. Flat and matted grey rugs concealed scratches in the hardwood floor. Pots and pans occupied random spots around the room, like on the coffee table and near one of the recliners. I suspected the roof had frequent leaks.
Two huge, umber-colored wolves lay snoring on a sofa. They slept side by side; the lighter one, missing part of its tail and with an ugly scar over one eye, rested its head on the darker wolf’s rump.
I swallowed. Holy cow. Those were some seriously big dogs.
On the floor, a russet wolf lounged beside a girl wearing shorts and a sports bra. They faced the plasma screen, watching some Animal Planet show that involved a bunch of meerkats running through the desert with their tails up. The wolf licked its lips.
“Come on.” Ilume tugged on the hem of my shirt. “You’ll have plenty of time to stare at them later.”
At the sound of Ilume’s voice, the russet wolf turned its head. The girl in the shorts looked at me, too. They tensed as they saw me, emitting low-pitched growls. The scary part? I couldn’t tell one noise from the other; the sound coming from the girl was just as lupine as her friend’s. In my opinion, it wasn’t a sound that a hot blonde in a sports bra should make.
Ilume ignored them, continuing toward a staircase at the edge of the living room. I stayed on her heels, afraid that if I fell even a step behind, I might be preyed upon by my new housemates. This wouldn’t be an easy transition. I could do this, right? Live in a house of monsters and come out alive in the end? I was a Finder, although training for this kind of situation wasn’t scheduled until senior year. I just had to be calm and play it cool even though my heart pounded in my ears.
The second floor hall was painted horse-turd brown. One end opened up to a loft filled with rowdy werewolves, the other hosted an elaborate, stained-glass window. The pieces were all angled to form trees with wolf silhouettes sneaking through them. Clear glass was shaped into four phases of the moon above—an elegant piece, too elegant to fit in here.
“That’s the bathroom.” Ilume pointed to one of the many doors in the hall. “Be careful where you step. Some of the youngsters are at that age where they tend to scent-mark their territory.”
“Oh, great,” I muttered, imagining myself stumbling out of bed in the night. Bleary-eyed, I’d be two feet from the toilet when my feet slid in something yellow and reeking. Gross.
Ilume stopped at the door beside the bathroom. “Wait here,” she ordered, then disappeared inside.
I pressed against the opposite wall, letting my head fall back. I took a deep breath. It didn’t help. All around me I smelled fur stained by the woods. I heard barking, howling, moving all around me. I wanted to turn my Finder senses off, and I didn’t want to stand here alone.
I glanced uneasily toward the loft. A set of young grey wolves were roughhousing, a group of young guys cheering them on. Fangs flashed as they rolled each other over, gnawed on each others’ limbs. It was like watching a wrestling match, only wolf-style.
Behind them, Aspen—the black kid from earlier—sat against the wall on a beanbag. He saw me. His face was blank, but his lips pressed flat, forming a narrow line. I had a feeling he didn’t like me. At least the wild children didn’t seem interested in me, or were just too preoccupied to notice.
Ilume reappeared. Under her arm was a wadded up blue blanket, and in her hands she grasped two large dog pads—the sheepskin kind with fleece bottoms. I narrowed my eyes. “What are those for?”
No answer. She moved along down the hall. We stopped at one of the last doors near the fancy window. She nodded inside.
I stepped into a simple bedroom. Silver sheets were pulled tight over a queen-sized bed, no wrinkles like in mine. Clean clothes sat folded in a basket, no photos on the grey walls or on the nightstand. It was like a hotel room. Did Ilume have a maid, or was she some kind of perfectionist? The dresser and nightstand were a matched set, both black like the net canopy hanging around the bed. Talk about dark decorating. The only white in the room was from the curtains, which danced in the breeze of the open French doors. A balcony peeked in from the other side.
Something flopped down behind me. Ilume had dropped the dog pads by the dresser, scooting them together. Walking outside to the balcony, she shook the blanket out. Even from far back I could see the dust and fur flying off the fabric.
“Here,” she said as she returned, chucking the blanket at me. “That’s yours. It gets cold at night, but I tend to leave the space heater on. You’ll have to tell me if you need more than one.”
“Oh. Thanks.” I unraveled it, stared at it a moment. No fleas at least. As my eyes ran over the dog beds, it clicked. “Wait a second. Is that my bed?”
“Where did you think you were sleeping?” she asked, then flashed a smirk. “I don’t sleep with humans, and you’ve pissed Rex off enough as it is. You’re welcome to go sleep on the loft pull-out, but the wolves tend to roam at all hours. Being what you are, I can’t guarantee you’ll wake up with all your body parts attached.”
“Oh, I’m good then.” I tossed the blanket on top of the pads. It might not be comfortable, but no way on earth was I going to give a werewolf—like Rex—the chance to eat one of my legs or tear off other important . . . things.
Ilume shook her head, then muttered something like, what have I gotten into?
“What’s up with that dude anyway?” I dropped down into my bed. If I was going to live here, I wanted the pack facts. Plus, sharing a room with someone who not only tried to kill me, but who I didn’t know, was awkward.
Ilume went stone-faced. She moved to the dresser, not looking at me. “He’s pack alpha, although he wasn’t supposed to be until he turned twenty-one. His father was alpha, but he died last year. Rex took the position two years early.”
“So, apparently him becoming alpha wasn’t a good thing?”
“Well,” she trailed off, and then looked up from digging in her clothes. “You know, why are you so curious?”
I shrugged. “I’m a curious guy.”
“No, you’re meddlesome. That’s what got you into this mess.” She pulled a deep green tee over her tube top. The tee was super low-cut, the fabric clingy.
I tried not to imagine her tube top disappearing. There would be a whole lot of cleavage involved if it did. I wondered if she was wearing one of those strapless bras.
I shook my head. Whoa, control, Jared.
“I’ll tell you what,” Ilume said, pulling her dark hair out of the shirt. It waved down her back, brushing the top of her shorts. “For every question I answer of yours, you’ll answer one of mine. How about it?”
“Mmm.” I pursed my lips, carefully considering. It was obvious why she wanted to play this game; she wanted to hear about the Finders. The question was: would she ask things I shouldn’t tell her? I refused to put my peers in danger.
Oh, what the hay. I could beat around the bush. “All right. I suppose that’s fair.”
She smiled. “Very well. Since you’ve already asked a question, I’ll be asking the next.” She hopped onto her mattress, wrinkling the perfect bedspread. Lying on her side, she propped her head in her hand. “What exactly does a Finder do with his gifts?”
“We work for the government.” Rex had already said it, so I saw no harm in confirming what she’d been told. “Or at least most of us do. We tag Otherworlders, like faeries, nightlings . . . werewolves . . . so that we can monitor their activity.”
“Oh.” Ilume’s nose wrinkled. “Well that’s not invasive or anything. And here I thought American humans were all about equal rights. I
guess if you’re truly abnormal that just goes out the window, huh?”
“Don’t say it like that. Look, we don’t hurt them unless they hurt us. We’re not trying to take away anyone’s rights. We’re doing it to keep the peace. The last thing humanity needs is to be faced with—”
“A threat?” She lifted an eyebrow. Her tone was almost seductive.
“Um. I was going to say world panic, but okay, I guess threat works, too.”
Although if she had any idea of the measures humans go to when they’re frightened, she might see it more my way. Teeth and claws won’t do any good should people start whipping guns out. I began to wonder how much she knew of humans.
“Hmm.” She ran her fingers through her hair.
“My turn,” I said when she didn’t comment further. “Where, um, where are we exactly?”
Her lips twitched, like she might smile again, then she sighed. Her mouth fell into a neutral line. “You’re in the great outdoors. Your home in Loralin is just a short plane ride over the border. You’re in Canada, deep in the forest where humans rarely tread.”
It felt like ice cubes slid down my neck. “Canada?” I had left the country? Peter’s going to have a hell of a time finding me now. I’d figured we were just a few miles out of town. A few cities away at the most—a traceable distance for Peter.
“Don’t look so down, mortal.” Ilume’s voice softened. “You chose to attack me, to follow me longer than you should have. I couldn’t leave you there to run off and tell the human government about my existence. I have to protect my family, just like you protect yours.”
Family. Mom popped into my mind for the first time. I relived the sight of her and Charles, climbing off each other and the kitchen counter. Ugh, shudder. Maybe being kidnapped wasn’t such a bad thing. It’s not like I was dying to be home right now anyway, and I’m sure they didn’t miss me. This was a great chance to learn about this pack, gather info for the Finders.
Predator Girl (A Paranormal Romance) Page 6